We recently connected with Evelyn Streeter and have shared our conversation below.

Evelyn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I have the honor of being a third generation floral designer.

Beginning with my grandfather’s passion to provide for his seven children he sold roses by the dozen on the corner of busy intersections in Detroit. My aunt then started her own floral company in Detroit with my mother beginning her own floral business not long after in our hometown about 2 hours west.

Following in our mother’s footsteps, at the young ages of 20 and 29, my brother and I took over our mother’s store in 2007 until I moved to Cincinnati in 2015 where I worked full time at the Cincinnati Art Museum as I grew my floral business.

In 2017 I began working full-time as a floral designer equipped with what my family taught me, along with the knowledge of a new and exciting city bustling with newly engaged couples, passionate flower lovers and small booming businesses. Cincinnati loves to support local!

To grow my craft and lust for continuing education, I have dedicated a portion of revenue each year to training and building my knowledge base of the floral industry. Whether that is through virtual learning, traveling for one-on-one in depth workshops, or working for other designers – I have been able to grow not only my skillset, but my network of friends in the industry as well.

Having the constant support, communication and trust of other designers not only in the local scene, but nationally I have been able to gain valuable insights in a constantly-changing market. Often times it can feel lonely building a brand and business on your own, but with the support of these fellow business owners it has been fulfilling in many ways.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Eve Floral Co. is a small, but mighty full service floral design business located in Cincinnati, but serving our couples wherever they celebrate. We love to travel for special celebrations, however our studio is based in Cincinnati’s oldest and historic neighborhood of Columbia Tusculum. Our studio houses our creative team specializing in designing flowers for events big and small and a workshop space where we host flower design classes year round. Additionally you will see our flowers at various small businesses in town for pop ups and markets or even special deliveries throughout the city to celebrate any occasion.

We are passionate about supporting local first. We source as many farm grown flowers as possible grown within a 2 hour radius of the city, and all of our retail offerings are either made locally or by a woman-owned business in the USA.

We believe the EFC brand is our creative muse, boasting with vibrant colors and flowers that not only evoke emotions, but will leave a lasting impression. Flowers simply make people happy and that’s our goal everyday.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It may come as no surprise that our industry practically came screeching to a halt in early 2020. All of our weddings were considerably downsized, rescheduled for 2021 or cancelled completely with no signs of coming back.

With nearly all of revenue put on hold, it was time to decide do we shut it all down or figure out how to make this work? I decided on the latter of the two. This business is my complete livelihood and without it I would have to start over again, and Covid was not going to be the reason I gave up.

In March 2020 we immediately shifted gears into offering more than just our wedding services and started doing daily flower deliveries-a no contact way to send joy to the people you love and miss. We also implemented a flower subscription program where subscribers could receive (or gift) weekly, monthly or seasonally a bouquet on their doorstep of fresh farm-grown blooms.

Throughout the process of marketing and building this concept, it was our busiest year for new business and customers. Our city showed up in huge ways with this effort and were completely on board with making sure that our small business continued to grow in big ways.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

In the hustle of the everyday I think it’s easy to lose sight of what you are doing this for or what it even means after doing it day in and day out. When I feel these moments, I rustle through a box I keep tucked in a cabinet full of cards, letters and affirmations given by customers and friends through the years. I read them to remind myself that what we are doing matters in even the smallest ways. When we receive positive reviews, when we hear a gasp from seeing one of our bouquets from a bride, when someone walks up and asks to take a photo of them with their newly designed flower arrangement they just made in one of our classes – it reminds me that this sort of beauty is so necessary (maybe now more than ever). That we need to keep building this community of people being together, sharing stories and laughing while immersed in experiences. Those things create lasting and priceless memories that I continue to grow more proud of every day while building this business and sharing it all through the love of flowers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.evefloralco.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/evefloralco
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/evefloralcollc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evelynstreeter/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eve-floral-co-cincinnati-7?osq=flowers

Image Credits
Alex Davis Photography Nicole Clarey Photography Olivia Hatfield Photography Awakening Photography